Persister

This one hits hard.

In Another Break With Trump, Pope Leo Skips U.S. 250th Celebration for Migrant Island As Trump builds his presidency around America’s 250th anniversary, the pope heads to Europe’s most symbolic migrant crossing — days after rejecting the president’s “Board of Peace.”

NEW: JD Vance flew to Rome to formally invite Pope Leo XIV to join America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The first American pope has declined — days after rejecting President Trump’s “Board of Peace” invitation.

On July 4, he’ll be in Lampedusa, standing with migrants.

this is how i witnessed an ICE kidnapping in western mass, i paid a $250 bail for a woman accused of trespassing (right...) and ICE snatched her as soon as we got out the door

A Fatal ICE Shooting Occurred in Texas Months Before Renee Good’s Killing

This case is insane:

ICE shot and killed a citizen last March then *hid it for a year.*

The young man they killed had no criminal history.

All we know about shooting is from internal ICE docs.

We don't know officers' names.

We don't have footage.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

Exclusive | OpenAI Employees Raised Alarms About Canada Shooting Suspect Months Ago The ChatGPT maker opted against informing Canadian authorities about Jesse Van Rootselaar’s descriptions of violence last June.

The Tumbler Ridge shooter had used OpenAI to discuss scenarios involving gun violence.

It was bad enough to get flagged and reviewed by employees, who warned the company & suggested alerting law enforcement.

The company said No.

This tragedy could have been prevented.

Gut wrenching.

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

You forgot public health care.

So… not a hoax then?

CARTOON OF THE DAY

Democrats should boycott the State of the Union and send Epstein survivors and people illegally detained by ICE in their place.

We’ve been convinced for so long that we’re supposed to look like teenage boys with breasts, completely hairless, without a wrinkle or a mark on our skin. And it was a bunch of pedophiles telling us that.

The damage done to women and girls is incalculable.

Long Covid is still here. I know – my life came to a stop because of it With more than 200 possible symptoms, long Covid isn’t easy to treat and diagnose. Rolled-back federal funding has led longhaulers to ask: is this all in my head?

"Long Covid is still here. I know – my life came to a stop because of it"

"With more than 200 possible symptoms, long Covid isn’t easy to treat and diagnose. Rolled-back federal funding has led longhaulers to ask: is this all in my head?"

#LongCOVID

"Solar panels in China are cheaper than a same-size piece of window glass. You can use panels as siding and fencing as if it’s a building material that just happens to produce some electricity
The future is panels everywhere"-@dfeldman.org
Thread: Solar Hockey Stick of Hope bsky.app/profile/70sb...

Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp couldn’t stay seated in his chair as he proudly stated, "Scare enemies and we kill people sometimes,” while speaking to shareholders. #cdnpoli

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature

Stephen Colbert interviewed Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. #cdnpoli
Trump’s FCC reportedly threatened CBS if the interview aired.
CBS caved and pulled the segment, citing “financial reasons.”
Full interview here 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

Year of the horse: the fire horse symbolizes great enthusiasm, innovation, and BOLD transformation, which is exactly what is needed for our country to break free from the grip of fascism.

This infant is an American citizen so they just fine murdering American babies. That’s where we’re at now

Insanity. They are laughing at us.

GEORGIA — Trump’s DHS just bought an ICE detention warehouse for $128 MILLION… that sold for $29 MILLION two years ago… from a Russia-based real estate company.🤔

Nothing to see here, folks!

We are being looted so hard by these crooks

Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?

That’s the problem right there - the mythical thinking that parenthood makes someone special, more worthy, a “benefit”. The entitlement is off the charts.

All the more reason to be discerning about having them, which most people aren’t in the least. Benefit to society is debatable. The planet is over-populated by a large degree.

Same. In my 40s I wondered for awhile if I should, but not to the point I felt the need. Well past the age now & I have no regrets.

The world does not revolve around those who choose to be parents. Singles pay the same taxes w/o the breaks. It’s hardly fair.

Lots of people don’t want and don’t have kids. It’s a choice. Those who do, get govt benefits & if it’s not enough they should wait until they can afford them or not have them. Singles get 0 benefits & life is more expensive - they should have the same right to benefits to ease cost of living.

US spent $40 million on roughly 300 deportations to third nations, Democratic report finds The Trump administration spent at least $40 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relat...

$133,333 per person to traffic them out of the US. Imagine how many people that money could've helped. Apparently, they sent $7.5 million to Palau who cashed the check and then refused to accept anyone.

Hey everyone. Potentially the biggest story in the country, right here. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Yes, because it’s not socially acceptable to say you don’t want to be a parent. I had to make excuses in my 30s & 40s.

Which has nothing to do with my point. Besides students get tax breaks that non-students don’t. Why should they get EI if they don’t pay into it? It’s literally insurance. I’ve been a consultant for decades & can’t collect EI when I run out of work because I’m not even allowed to pay into it.

There’s plenty of support & tax breaks, parental leave, flex hours, etc. But parenthood isn’t for everyone & shouldn’t have more privileges. Singles have it harder - much more expensive to live.